The entire Australian mainland at state and federal level is now governed by the Labor Party after Chris Minns was victorious in the New South Wales election.
Tasmania remains the only Coalition-controlled jurisdiction with the Liberal and National Party facing voter backlash in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
NSW voters left the Coalition after 12 years in power, and the landslide election defeat showed a massive swing towards Labour.
Other state and territory elections followed an identical trend with strongly held seats being gradually wrested by the Independents, Greens and Labor.
In the case of NSW, Daily Mail Australia has identified the three key reasons why voters turned against Dominic Perrottet and the Liberal Party.
All states and territories on the Australian mainland are governed by Labor governments, with Tasmania being the outlier as the only state run by Liberals.
Chris Minns (pictured left with his wife Anna and their children) will become NSW’s 47th Prime Minister after a landslide Labor victory in the state election.
The cost of living and the sale of public assets
Voters ranked rising cost-of-living pressures the biggest issue in the run-up to the vote with inflation soaring to 7.8 percent and 10 straight cash rate hikes.
Chris Minns has promised to reduce energy bills for families by $250 and small businesses by $315, as part of a proposed $485 million Energy Relief Fund to ease some of the financial pressure.
Labor has also vowed to end the privatization of public assets in a bid to reduce day-to-day costs for Australians.
Minns called for the creation of a state-owned energy company called the Energy Security Corporation.
The measure proved popular with voters facing spiraling energy bills.
So did Minns’ promise to amend the NSW constitution to ensure that Sydney Water and Hunter Water remain in public hands following revelations that the NSW Liberal Party, under Perrottet, had plans to sell parts of the asset to a Chinese company.
Voters in New South Wales abandoned Dominic Perrottet (pictured) and the Coalition after 12 years in power, and the landslide election defeat showed a massive shift towards Labour.
Labor faithful are shown celebrating the party’s historic victory in NSW
During the campaign, Labor announced that stamp duty will be eliminated or reduced for first-time homebuyers on purchases up to $800,000 and property tax will be abolished.
The new government says that 30 per cent of all housing built on government surplus land will go towards social and affordable housing.
Minns says his government will review and revamp Sydney’s toll roads, capping drivers at $60 a week.
Workers are also willing to abolish the three percent public sector wage cap and negotiate sector-by-sector wages.
health and education
Healthcare has remained a key focus for voters and politicians since the Covid-19 pandemic shed light on critical issues within the sector.
NSW Labor has promised It will hire 1,200 nurses and midwives to bolster the overwhelmed health system, and 500 paramedics will also be hired for regional and rural areas.
Mr Minns committed to providing over 600 new hospital beds in Western Sydney by building a new 300-bed hospital on Rouse Hill, a new hospital on the Aerotropolis precinct and upgrading Canterbury hospitals and Fairfield.
The Party has also pledged $70m to build three new helicopter ambulance bases to reduce emergency response times in regional and rural NSW.
But the newly appointed prime minister says his first priority in government will be to bolster ranks in the education sector with plans to lay off a wave of new teachers to quell persistent staff shortages.
Labor has promised that an additional 1,200 nurses and midwives will be recruited and 500 paramedics will be recruited for regional and rural areas.
Roads and Infrastructure
Labor said it will allocate $1.1bn for road improvements in western Sydney and the NSW region, including relieving bottlenecks at Riverstone and Homebush and additional on-ramps and off-ramps on the M1 at Dapto.
It has committed $225 million to build evacuation roads, bridges and levees in western Sydney to protect communities from flooding.
The party has also vowed to remove construction speed limits when not working to comply with the rules that already exist in Victoria and South Australia.
Minns has pledged to complete two of the government’s four planned Sydney Metro routes, citing the Tallawong to St Marys and Macarthur to Aerotropolis lines as the most urgent.
Labor in his first term plans to start the process of procuring a new fleet to replace the Tangara trains and will ensure the trains are built in NSW, creating at least 1,000 jobs.
Labor said it will complete two of the four Sydney Metro routes planned by the government (
He will also start the construction of the second stage of the Parramatta Light Rail project in his first term.
Millions turned out across the state on Saturday to cast their ballots.
Perrottet called on Minns to concede defeat, and now his attention will turn to his safe seat in Epping, which he must keep.
He said that the party needed a “fresh start” and that he would retire as leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party.
